1. laelaps
  2. Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi

Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi

By laelaps on February 1, 2008.

i-79712d9b13105532d9ae2c5410132c76-montealsuch.jpg


The new crocodylian Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi. [Image source].


I guess this one slipped by without getting proper attention. In October of 2007 research described a new genus of species of crocodylian, Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi (pictured above) in the journal Zootaxa. It was a late Cretaceous member of the Peirosauridae found in Bauru Basin, Brazil, although it was only one representative of a larger diversity of crocodylians from the location that also included notosuchids, sphagesaurids, baurusuchids, and trematochampsids. Unfortunately the paper is behind a subscription wall (the issue in which it can be found is located here, a pdf of the abstract and excerpt being located here).

Update: A kind reader has sent the paper along (thank you!), so I'll have something more substantial about this creature sometime soon.

Tags
Crocodylians
paleontology

More like this

A new Cretaceous terrestrial crocodylian, Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi
The new crocodylian Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi. [Image source]. Living crocodylians have often been referred to as "living fossils," creatures that have survived "virtually unchanged" for hundreds of millions of years. In truth, crocodylians as we recognize them today (i.e. aquatic ambush…
Armadillosuchus: One bad crocodyliform
Life restoration of the head of Armadillosuchus. From Marinho and Carvalho (2009). When I was trying to come up with a title for this post I almost went with "Armadillosuchus: An armored crocodyliform you wouldn't want to mess with." Obviously I changed my mind. Not only was the title too long…
Move over Theropoda, Sebecosuchia rules
Most of us have grown up with the idea that the Mesozoic Era was, excepting the Early Triassic, a time when dinosaurs dominated life on land. Or, put another way, a time when dinosaurs were the most ecologically significant and most obvious of all land animals. The familiar generalization,…
Potential Coevolution of Theropods in Cretaceous Gondwana
When I wrote about the new species of predatory dinosaur, Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis, this past December, I made a note of how interesting it was that in Cretaceous Gondwana there seems to be a certain triumvirate of predatory dinosaur groups. According to the data presented in Brusatte and…

Could you forward it my way, Brian? I'm not usually that interested in crurotarians, but I'd like to draw this critter. That's a wonderful fossil!